Where Oh Where Is The Movie: The African Queen????

6 posts in this topic

One of Both Katherine Hepburn’s and especially Humphrey Bogart’s best movies ever was the African Queen. Yet it has not been shown on TCM for many years. Why? Why are they snubbing this wonderful, wonderful movie???!!! They use to show it, quite often I might add. I’ve seen it a few times on other channels. Just as I have other TCM movies. However, TCM has decided to bury Academy Award Nominated and Winning movie: Humphrey Bogart won for Best Actor, Katherine Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, John Houston was nominated for Best Director as well as Best Screenplay along with James Agee. John Houston was also nominated for Best Film by the British Academy of Film and TV Arts - Any Source, again for Best Film. Why would they do that to such a film? They show On the Waterfront 3-5 times per year, Dr Zhivago at least 4 times a year, Lawrence of Arabia about 5 times a year. I am so sick of these movies and on this subject I definitely know I am not alone. Give us a break on these movies already!! Enough is enough!!! Bring back The African Queen!! I question the reasoning of the people who decided to remove it from TCM’s Programming rotation and not just remove it from rotation but to bury it deep in the vault for many many years. I watch TCM Many, many hours a day. I always check to see what’s on each and every day up until the next day starts. And there just hasn’t been a showing of the great The African Queen in years!! They are almost doing the same thing with all Christmas movies. The Bishop’s Wife use to be a regular at Christmas on TCM, shown about 3 - 4 times during the Christmas Holiday starting in November after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t shown at all last year and only once the year before and at an odd time if memory serves. The same can be said about other staple Christmas movies on TCM. Why is TCM GETTING RID OF CHRISTMAS??? Liberals aren’t the only ones that watch TCM!!! And by the way, many Liberals do celebrate CHRISTMAS!!! However, that’s another subject altogether.

I’m fighting for The African Queen!!! Two of the best actors ever and one of the best directors and one of the best classic movies ever made and Turner Classic Movies no longer shows this movie at all!!! Why Why Why Why??? Who but TCM would throw The African Queen in the garbage can. A movie of this caliber trashed!!! Ohhh, but less show all those B rated movies with people like Jayne Mansfield and those 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and up that people never heard of. And what about those pathetic C rated sci-fi flicks they give an entire day to???!!! But The African Queen is not worthy to be shown any longer??? Who in the H is making the program decisions over the last 10 years??? They certainly don’t know their classic movies as many classics are no longer shown in place of the junk I mentioned above and some junk I didn’t mention. We are lucky these days to get a classic film shown on Turner “Classic” Movies!!!! Just because 20 have past doesn’t make the movies of 20 years past classics. Somehow TCM has tried to adopt that theory. That applies to cars ? NOT movies!!! Not in my book!!! Bring back The African Queen, please!!

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

The African Queen last aired on TCM in October of 2014. It had aired at least 33 times previously, according to our resident record-keeper.

As for why it's been so long since the last showing, I couldn't say. The movie is widely available on DVD and Blu-ray, so it may be that Warner withholds airings on TV to stimulate disc sales. Or there may be other rights issues or licensing agreements.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

One of Both Katherine Hepburn’s and especially Humphrey Bogart’s best movies ever was the African Queen. Yet it has not been shown on TCM for many years. Why? Why are they snubbing this wonderful, wonderful movie???!!! They use to show it, quite often I might add. I’ve seen it a few times on other channels. Just as I have other TCM movies. However, TCM has decided to bury Academy Award Nominated and Winning movie: Humphrey Bogart won for Best Actor, Katherine Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, John Houston was nominated for Best Director as well as Best Screenplay along with James Agee. John Houston was also nominated for Best Film by the British Academy of Film and TV Arts - Any Source, again for Best Film. Why would they do that to such a film? They show On the Waterfront 3-5 times per year, Dr Zhivago at least 4 times a year, Lawrence of Arabia about 5 times a year. I am so sick of these movies and on this subject I definitely know I am not alone. Give us a break on these movies already!! Enough is enough!!! Bring back The African Queen!! I question the reasoning of the people who decided to remove it from TCM’s Programming rotation and not just remove it from rotation but to bury it deep in the vault for many many years. I watch TCM Many, many hours a day. I always check to see what’s on each and every day up until the next day starts. And there just hasn’t been a showing of the great The African Queen in years!! They are almost doing the same thing with all Christmas movies. The Bishop’s Wife use to be a regular at Christmas on ﻿TCM, shown about 3 - 4 times during the Christmas Holiday starting in November after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t sh﻿own at all last year and only once the year before and at an odd time if memory serves. The same can be said about other staple Christmas movies on TCM. Why is TCM GETTING RID OF CHRISTMAS??? Liberals aren’t the only ones that watch TCM!!! And by the way, many Liberals do celebrate CHRISTMAS!!! However, that’s another subject altogether.

I have assumed their selection of Christmas movies had much to do with selling little-known or difficult to locate films from the TCM store. The fairly recent multi-time showings of "Remember the Night" (a film a like very much) and "It Happened on Fifth Avenue" (not a good movie, I think) are examples.

As for "The African Queen" - I remember watching that 2014 showing (I think Alex Trebek was the guest host), and the print quality was very bad. So perhaps they do not have rights to the updated version.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Do these forums have any references to the full catalog of titles in the TCM library - with notes to show the most recent airing? Or if a film has never aired?

There's a member, MovieCollectorOH, who has assembled a massive database of what has been shown on TCM, how often, and the first & latest dates that they've been shown. It's not without some holes (some schedules he hasn't been able to locate yet), but it's an impressive list.